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23rd Vuelta a Castilla y León - 2.1

Spain, March 24-28, 2008

Stage 5 - March 28: Guardo - Riaño, 158.0km

Fernandez tops on spectacular final stage

Contador takes the overall win

Euskaltel-Euskadi's Koldo Fernandez gave his team a stage win from a bunch sprint on an exciting final day of the 23rd Vuelta a Castilla y León. The orange-clad sprinter overhauled the early jump by stage three winner Francisco Ventoso (Andalucía - Cajasur), fending off points leader Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) to take the victory. Astana's Alberto Contador finished the stage with the main group, polishing off the overall win after holding the leader's jersey since the opening day.

The bunch sprint was expected, but almost never materialised on a spectacular stage which began with three categorised mountain passes. On the third climb, the category two Puerto Pando, Enrique Salgueiro (Extremadura), Xavier Zandio (Caisse d'Epargne) and Hector Gonzalez (Saunier Duval) created a gap and were marked by Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Slipstream's Pat McCarty.

The five riders gained 2'30 on the peloton on the rolling middle part of the stage, but when Sanchez attacked on the category two final ascent of the Puerto de las Señales, taking Zandio along, all bets were off.

Sanchez put in a valliant effort to pull himself back up into contention for the overall, but on the long descent en route to Riaño, the break was nullified. Rabobank's Koos Moerenhout tried to foil the sprinters with an attack inside the final five kilometres, but was brought back. On a twisting, technical finale marked by piles of snow on the roadsides, the pace heading into the finale was blistering, and it was almost inevitable that a crash would occur. Christian Pfannberger (Barloworld) and Edgar Pinto (Benfica) were the unfortunate victims, but both were able to finish the stage as Fernandez and Contador headed to the podium to celebrate their victories.

Dekker held onto the points classification with his second place, while Ivan Melero (Orbea) won the king of the mountains. Rabobank took home the team prize.